Sunday 14 September 2008

RoboCut - Autonomous Lawn Cutting Robotic Platform

The Robocut is an interesting lawn cutting robot. It is great because you build it yourself and it’s powered by a Parallax Stamp Microcontroller. Just like iRobot did for the Roomba, RoboCut has the ability for the purchaser to play with the design and come up with their own idea for the system operation. Have a look at the circuit board below, there’s even a small amount of prototype area so that you can add your own components directly to the system. I think GPS would be a fun addition!

"RoboCut, is a BASIC Stamp powered robot. Two 12Volt motors with gearbox gives the two large drivewheels good traction and the robot can manouver in very small areas. Powersource is a NiMh accu-pack at 12V, 4.1 Ah. One motor gives the cutterdisk a rpm at approx. 3500 rpm. A Basic STAMP 2 is the brain in the PCB mounted in the front of the Robocut. This PCB has the following features. -Two-chanel (right/left) Buried Wire Fence (BWF) detectors. -Two-chanel (right/left) active IR obstacle detection -Two chanel (right/left) drive motor control on/off, Forward/Rewerse -One chanel cutter-motor control on/off, MOS-FET 20 Amp -Charging/accuvoltage measuring with high resolution -Charger detection On/off -Optional temperature sensor to check accupack temp during charging. -prototype area -prepared for optional "self-charging" and navigating to the chargingstation via an IR_beacon."


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